Psalm 66:8-20 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 66:8-20 on biblegateway.com
Verse 8Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard,
Verse 9who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.
Verse 10For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.
Verse 11You brought us into the net; you laid burdens on our backs;
Verse 12you let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.
Verse 13I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will pay you my vows,
Verse 14those that my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
Verse 15I will offer to you burnt offerings of fatlings, with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams; I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah
Verse 16Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.
Verse 17I cried aloud to him, and he was extolled with my tongue.
Verse 18If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
Verse 19But truly God has listened; he has given heed to the words of my prayer.
Verse 20Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me.
Devotion
I met Katie via the video camera at the county public safety building. I was the new pastor in the congregation. During high school Katie's life began to spin out of control. She made bad decisions, ran with the wrong crowd, and got into all kinds of trouble. Soon she was behind bars, facing a serious charge which had resulted in a long prison sentence.
One day I asked, "What keeps you going, Katie?" Her response surprised me, "For the first time in my life, I belong to a Bible study group led by a lady like me. She has been in prison. This woman keeps saying, 'The Lord is the God of second chances!'"
The psalmist had been tested, gone through fire and water, and the Lord had brought this struggling soul into a safe place. No wonder ancient saints called this psalm "a song of the resurrection." This is the hope that has kept Katie going; and that hope can sustain you and me also.
Prayer
O God of second chances, hear the cries of your daughters and sons in prison and those who have lost hope for a better life. Amen.